Billionaire Game Theory + We Are Not Ready for A.G.I. + Election Betting Markets Get Weird

Last week, Jeff Bezos canceled the Washington Post editorial board’s plan to endorse Kamala Harris. Are tech billionaires hedging their bets in case Donald Trump wins? Then, Miles Brundage, a former OpenAI senior adviser on artificial general intelligence readiness, stops by to tell us how his old company is doing when it comes to being ready for superintelligence, and whether we should all keep saving for retirement. And finally, David Yaffe-Bellany, a Times technology reporter, joins us to explore the rise of Polymarket, a crypto-powered betting platform, and discuss whether prediction markets can tell us who is going to win the election.

 

Guests:

• Miles Brundage, former OpenAI senior adviser for A.G.I. readiness.
• David Yaffe-Bellany, technology reporter for The New York Times.

 

Additional Reading:

• Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the Billions of Ways to Influence an Election
• Miles Brundage’s on Why He’s Leaving OpenAI
• The Crypto Website Where the Election Odds Swing in Trump’s Favor

 

We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.